Ford China set new sales record in May

Not to be outdone by cross-town rival General Motors, Ford announced on Wednesday that its Chinese operations set a new all-time sales record for the month of May. GM announced earlier in the day that it had set a new high watermark for sales in China during May.

Fueled by strong demand for its SUV models, Ford China's sales surged 45 percent to 70,540 units in May.

In just its second month on the market, the EcoSport subcompact SUV accounted for 6,231 of Ford's total sales during May. The Kuga utility vehicle was also a hot seller in May, recording 7,892 deliveries.

Although Ford is seeing growing demand for its SUVs in China, the Focus compact remains its top seller. Ford sold 27,345 Focus models in China last month, up from 23,140 units in May 2012. Through the first five months of the year Ford has sold 155,000 units of the Focus in China, up nearly 87 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Ford China's sales have surged 48 percent to 332,467 vehicles so far this year, but the Dearborn-based automaker still trails GM's sales mark by about 1 million units.